US man 'groomed' into smuggling drugs

An American man was groomed by an email scam artist into smuggling almost 3kg of methamphetamine into Australia, a Perth court has heard.

Robert Dewey Henson was arrested at Perth Airport on November 7 last year after custom officials found the drugs hidden in the lining of a suitcase in his possession.

The West Australian Supreme Court heard on Tuesday that Henson had been tricked into smuggling the border controlled substance by purported British lawyer "Roland Blair".

Mr Blair had emailed Henson two years prior to the incident, claiming that Henson was entitled to a $10.5 million inheritance but needed to do things to receive it.

Prosecutor Linda Black said in her opening statement that Mr Blair allegedly paid for Henson to courier an oil separation sample, which he was told was made to look like a box of chocolates, from Spain to Japan.

Henson received $1000 for his services but was then told something had gone wrong and he now had to travel to Australia to collect his inheritance.

The court heard Henson became suspicious that he was being scammed but kept going because he was happy to travel.